The air was filled with tension by the time that Atella got back into the control room. There were a few people that looked a bit panicked, but there were also some that looked to be relieved. Atella looked around and saw Fury barking orders at another agent.
It wasn't until she walked fully into the room that she saw who that agent was; Natasha. Her best friend. She walked over to the two SHIELD members and stayed a respectful distance away while they talked. She saw Natasha look over at and smile slightly. They hadn't seen each other in a very long time. Longer than Atella had been on leave. Natasha was busy doing something for the Ironman situation and had been indisposed for months. By the time that she completed whatever it was she was doing, Atella was long gone.
Atella returned Natasha's smile and continued observing the people in the room. She looked over to where Agent Coulson was standing looking at a monitor, and saw a picture of a man on the screen. She could only guess who that man was.
"Is that our guy," she said taking the few steps toward Coulson.
"The god of lies and mischief himself. We have located him in Germany," said Coulson in a tone that conveyed both anger and a slight awe.
"How powerful is he really? Does anyone know?"
Coulson looked away from the screen. "If he is as strong as his brother, we are in some trouble."
"And what if he is stronger?"
"We can only hope that that isn't the case."
Atella sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was a reaction when she was incredibly frustrated. SHIELD never wanted to think about the worse case scenario. They only hoped that it wouldn't be that bad, and that wasn't good enough for her.
"Okay, well what is his weapon? What can he do? Can he control the lightning like Thor? Does he have powers like the Destroyer? What are we dealing with? My god… Nobody knows anything, and if they do, they are not telling everyone enough! How do you expect us to fight when we don't even know how to prepare? What in the hell have you all been doing while I was away?"
A few people had gone quiet at the volume of her voice. She rarely yelled, and if she did, it was usually an order. It did not seem to faze Coulson, however.
"He has some sort of staff. We don't know what it does or what it is capable of doing. He can use magic. We don't know what kind or how powerful it can be. The fact of the matter is that you don't know what we are dealing with because we don't know either. We are calling in everyone we can that might be able to explain it to us better. If you want to learn more about him, Agent, I suggest you listen rather than talk."
Atella didn't say anything. This was the reason she was quiet. When she did open her mouth, it was usually to criticize someone else because they did not live up to her standards. There was no reason to accuse SHIELD of anything, yet, in any case.
Just as she opened her mouth to apologize, she heard Fury right behind her. "Vorst, go with the Captain and Agent Romanoff. I think it would do you some good to get off of this boat for a while. Oh, and while you're out, can you make up your mind about whether or not you even want to be apart of this agency?"
Great. Her first day back and she was already disappointing people. "It won't happen again, I am going to go get ready."
She didn't even bother confirming or asking where they were going. If they found Loki, that mean they were going after him the first chance they got. Also, if they wanted her, Natasha, and the Captain, they were anticipating a fight.
Atella's usually straight and rigid posture was completely changed by the time she got back to her room. It felt like the weight of everyone's stress, her own included, was weighing her down. She sat down heavily on the bed and closed her eyes. She could have fallen asleep right then, but she didn't. Instead, she let herself drift off into the minds of others on the ship. Minds that were, hopefully, much more calm than her own.
She went from agent to agent, trying to find someone that wasn't worried about a possible attack on the Earth. She couldn't find one. Everyone was on edge.
She felt the mind of the doctor, and just listened to his thoughts for a few minutes. He was worried that he was going to kill everyone else on the ship. Atella was pretty sure everyone else was worried about the same thing. However, looking deeper into his emotions, he also felt proud that he was able to help, and even a bit relieved and happy to be back in a laboratory environment again. She smiled at his thoughts. He was a sweet man. Before leaving, she went to another corner of his mind, and sat straight up as soon as the two made the connection. In a flash, she saw a massive green face staring right at her. The Hulk knew she was looking inside the doctor's mind, and he did not like it. Atella had not completely pulled away from the darkest corner of Banner's mind when she felt something in that connection. The darkness was sweeping over the rest of his mind. The Hulk wanted out.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit, was all she could think as she watched, horrorstruck as the darkness was slowly taking over. Then, without warning, the lightest and strongest part of the mind, stronger than the Hulk, completely took over, driving the darkest back in an instant. Atella waited to a few more seconds before severing the connection she had made.
She opened her eyes again to find herself standing; one hand on the doorknob, and the other on the gun on her hip. She let go of both and returned to her bed and threw herself on it. It seemed like she was making several bad decisions today. Maybe she shouldn't go on this little trip with Natasha and the Captain. At this rate, she is going to cause the entire war to be won with just one more stupid decision made on her part.
8-8-8-8
Atella had only been to Germany once in her life, and that was just passing through. Usually to get assigned somewhere, you had to speak the language of the country, and, if there were anything that she was completely useless at, it was foreign languages. The only languages that she was even slightly good at were Italian and Spanish, and that was just because of her love for both foods. Germany was always out of the question.
Her and the pilot didn't talk in the plane right to the city. There was no reason to speak. Atella was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to say anything out loud. She had never faced another superhuman before, and was trying to prepare her mind for the worst. The thought of dying didn't faze her, but it was the thought of other people dying because she made a mistake. She couldn't afford to lose focus tonight with so many other people around. If mind control wouldn't work on the god, something that was very likely of happening, then she had to be ready to fight him.
She was to be dropped off first at this party to try to locate Loki. They knew that he was at the party, but they wanted an exact position on him. She left on a plane before Natasha or the Captain did, and was dropped out a couple of miles out of the city. From there, she began running into the heart of the German city to the party.
8-8-8-8
This was the only behavior that Loki had seen on Earth that reminded him of home. In Asgard, banquets and parties filled with delicious food and drink happened at least once a month, until Odin decided otherwise.
Although Asgardian festivities were far more lavish, this wasn't as bad as he was expecting it to be. He walked around for a bit talking to different people here and there. A king should know the people that he is ruling over after all. He found them to be quiet boring. A lot of them only cared about 'who he was wearing,' a question that he didn't understand in the slightest.
If he had to be honest with himself, he liked the people of Earth. Why would he want to rule over a race that he despises? They were laughably weak, and it would take many years to establish any sort of fearsome reputation in the other realms with them, but, he would be a king. A good king at that. Some of the humans, like Selvig and Barton, gave him some hope. They both seemed to be years ahead of their peers in terms of intelligence and combat skills, respectivly. They would be the starting point for making this planet a leading might within the realms.
Loki also had a few other humans that would prove to be useful once he had taken control of the planet. The man, Tony Stark, was perhaps just as intelligent as Selvig if not more so. The man who was more monster than human, Banner, would create a new breed of human. Stronger, faster, that would be his army. If it proved impossible to control the beasts, then there was always the Captain. Weaker than the monster, but still more useful than the rest of the population.
Yes, Loki would make these people powerful. He would be a good king.
8-8-8-8
Atella reached the edge of the city in a matter of minutes. It was a good thing she continued to jog while on leave, otherwise she wouldn't have made it. When she was five blocks away from the city, she went into a back alleyway to get ready for the party. However, it was not a dress that she pulled from her bag, but several weapons. She would be able to manipulate the minds of the people at the party to not notice her, or her attire, while she was there. There was no way they were letting her set foot inside those doors while she was wearing a skin tight jumpsuit.
Atella took several knives of various sizes from her bag and laid them on the dumpster in front of her and began concealing them to several parts of her body. The largest of these, somewhere between a sword and a dagger she strapped to her back. Two went on her hip, and two more were attached to the side of her calf. Then she took out the only gun that she bothered to bring and slipped it into its holster on her thigh. She seriously doubted that bullets would do anything to the man, but if she could get close enough to him to stab him in the side of the head, surely that would be successful.
Atella usually never had to worry about protecting herself. Her diamond skin would easily make guns and knives useless, and if someone did manage to sneak up on her, she would feel their mind before anything could happen. However, she wasn't taking any chances tonight.
The last two knives in her bag were small daggers. These she concealed on the inside of her wrists. They were the only throwing knives that she brought with her, and she regretted not bringing more and having to rely on a gun for distance attacks. She didn't trust guns. One mission, she was so injured that she had to rely solely on a gun to protect her, and it had jammed on her. She would have been killed if it hadn't been for Natasha. It was only Atella's second mission, but she owed Natasha her life for saving her then. Since that moment, Atella hardly ever used guns, and often made fun of Natasha for favoring them so much.
Regardless, she doubled checked everything then withdrew her last item from the bag. It was her communication earpiece. She needed to keep Natasha updated on Loki's location within the building once she found him.
She turned it on and instantly heard Natasha's say, "Welcome back to work Agent Vorst."
Atella smiled. "It's good to be back, Agent Romanoff. I'm in the city. I should be at the party in about ten minutes."
"Good. We won't be able to get there for another thirty minutes. Fury went over a few more things with us after you left, so we got a late start. But, that will give you some time to find Loki and try to get him away from the crowd. We will wait for your word."
"Copy that," Atella said emerging from the alleyway.
"Atella, be careful. Take your time finding him, and don't do anything too brash."
"Copy that," Atella said quickening her pace.
8-8-8-8
Agent Romanoff turned off her side of the communicator, but continued to watch the tracking monitor from her seat in the cockpit of the plane. She watched as the little green dot that was Atella move closer and closer to the center of the city, and started to relax slightly. If anyone could find Loki and keep him under control, it was her. Trying to take her mind off of her friend, she turned to the Captain sitting behind her.
"Are you ready to see some action again?"
He looked up from his hands and smiled sadly at her. "Unfortunately, I think that I have seen enough action in my lifetime."
Of course he had. That was the wrong thing to say to him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring back any memories or anything."
"No… it's okay. I just thought that after the war was over, the world would be at peace for a while. From my understanding, there have been many other wars and conflicts since then. I had hoped that the world would never need anyone like me again."
"People kill. It isn't a silly idea to want peace, but I do think that it is an impossible one. The day when people stop killing each other will never happen. It's something that I had to realize a long time ago."
"Maybe this will unite everyone, you know, if we do go to war. Everyone will have a common enemy then," Steve said in a bitter tone.
"Maybe. After that they will probably just go back to blaming each other for their own problems and we will be right back where we started. The world is always going to need you and people like you Captain, and that is nothing to be sad about. The world is the way it is, and we can't change that, but you bring happiness and hope into it. That's a reason to keep fighting."
Steve didn't say anything for a few seconds, then gave her a real smile and said, "Well… I suppose that I can get behind that. Yes Agent, I am ready."
8-8-8-8
Atella could see the building now. It was at the center of a large square in the city, and the square was completely filled with people; men that were in suits and jackets, and women in dresses. On the way over here through the city, Atella had reached out into people's minds and concealed herself completely, but she didn't anticipate how many people would be here. She seriously doubted if she could hide herself completely from this many people, but she could just give herself a different outfit. That would be far easier. She looked around and saw a guest of the party that was looking in her direction. Before his eyes could pass over to the spot she was standing in, she reached out to his mind and made herself visible to him.
Instead of wearing a black jumpsuit, he saw her in a beautiful dark blue, almost black, full length dress. Instantly, his focus zoomed in on her and his eyes looked at her from head to toe hungrily.
Well, at least it works, Atella thought before walking though the crowd of people to the entrance of the enormous building in front of her. When she got to the security at the door, she took complete control of the man's mind and he stepped aside for her to enter.
Once she was inside, she took a moment to look at her surroundings. Other than on missions, she had never really been in a place as fancy as this. It was nice.
She continued to walk throughout the foyer until she got into the main room where it was the most crowded. She was still in awe of the place and was looking around when she spotted him. He was standing at the very top of the stairs at the balcony and was watching everyone below him. She continued to walk across the room to the stairs, trying hard not to look right at him. Just as before she reached the stairs, she felt someone touch her arm and turned around.
"Hello, I don't think that I have ever seen you before. May I ask who you are?" said an older man in a tuxedo. He didn't look suspicious of her, and a quick look into his mind showed his thoughts were anything but honest.
She smiled at him, and with a thought, made him turn away and walk into the crowd and away from her. Her eyes quickly shot up to where Loki had been standing and she almost jumped, but thanks to years of training, she managed to stifle that reflex. He was staring right at her, right into her eyes. She quickly looked away from him and acted as though she was just embarrassed at the attention, and tried to disappear into the crowd.
As she was walking through the people and away from the stairs, she grabbed on to someone else's mind that she saw facing Loki's direction and looked through his eyes. Loki was still watching her, not blinking at all. Atella continued to look at the random man's mind and watched Loki watching her. To seem less suspicious, she tried to make small talk with a woman standing near her, and, eventually, Loki turned away from her and started walking up the stairs.
Atella let go of the man's mind and turned away from the woman, who was in the middle of a sentence, and made her way back to the stairs. Sure enough, Loki was nowhere to be seen. She started to reach out then, searching his mind.
It didn't take long, and it was surprisingly easy to find him. She could feel him there, but didn't dare to enter his head yet. His mind was so different from everyone else's, and it was most likely because he was an alien. She didn't dare look around his thoughts yet. Some average people, if they were paying attention, could feel a slight uncomfortable feeling if she probed too far into their mind suddenly. She was sure that Loki would be able to feel something the instant she entered his mind. For now, he was just there; like when you smell the ocean, and you can't see it, but you know it's there.
He seemed to be several floors above her, and, from his steady position, he wasn't moving. This already made part of her job easier for her since she didn't have to corner him on her own anymore. He had already done that for her.
She walked up the stairs and turned the corner to find herself in a painfully white hallway with several doors on either side. She went to the one closest on her right and found it to be unlocked. She opened it and peeked in, and saw that it was a giant bathroom on the other side, and slipped in. She let go of everyone's mind and instantly felt relief. It took more concentration than she realized to hide herself from everyone in the room, and she felt slightly tired from it.
Atella took a guess that Loki would be able to sense her presence if she got to close to the room that he was in. She turned on her communicator to talk to Natasha.
"Is everything going okay?" Natasha asked as soon as it turned on.
"Yeah, everything is fine. I have a location on Loki. He is in the building on the forth floor, but I don't have a room to tell you an exact place. I am still on the second floor in a bathroom, but I'm not sure what I should do next. Do you want me to just wait for you guys?"
"No," Natasha said. "We are still about ten or fifteen minutes out, and there is no guarantee that he won't try to leave. You need to make sure he stays on that floor, but don't confront him if you don't have to. Just make sure that he doesn't get away. Do you copy?"
"Copy," Atella said. Nervousness started to set in again as she turned off her communicator, but she quickly pushed it aside. There was no time to over think the situation. She needed to get in and get out, doing whatever needed to be done in-between.
She searched for people outside the door, and, finding none, quickly slipped out of the room. She began to focus on Loki's mind again, but he still had not moved at all. Using the rest of her concentration, she hide herself from his eyes only, and blocked her mind from his just in case.
She moved silently, as only an agent of SHIELD can, and quickly made her way down the hallway to the other staircase and started climbing up to the forth floor. She managed to make it all the way up without encountering another person, and turned the corner to walk down the hallway to the room where she felt Loki's presence.
Just as she rounded the corner she came face to face with him. He was just standing there looking. He did not even blink when she almost ran into him. She quickly tried to reach out to him and grab his mind before he realized she was standing there, but as she went towards him, she felt nothing. There were no thoughts or anything. She walked over to him and stared him straight in the eyes and tried again, but she still didn't feel a thing.
She walked around behind him, but he still didn't move a muscle. He wasn't frozen, because she could still see him breathing, but he just wasn't moving. She was standing to his left behind him, and, curiosity getting the best of her, reached out and poked him on the shoulder.
Two things happened at once. The first was that her finger went right through him, and he seemed to disappear for a split second, almost like a flash. The second thing that happened was that he whipped around and was staring right into her eyes.
"Ah," he said with a grin," so there is someone there. Please, join me. I'm sure that you will be able to find me." Then he disappeared for good.
Atella couldn't even move for a few moments. She was in complete shock. He had a hologram of himself, that's why she couldn't see his mind. But, why didn't he just kill her just now if he knew someone was there? She still had hold of his mind, and could feel him walking around the room he was in. He was pacing back and forth, waiting on her. She made herself visible to him again; there was no sense in hiding if he already knew that she was there.
He was in the room all the way at the end of the hallway, and Atella took her time walking there. She thought about informing Natasha, but she had to nearly be here. Instead, she grabbed the large knife from her back and took a moment to prepare her mind. There was going to be a fight soon.
She grabbed the doorknob of the room, and felt him stop walking. He knew she was there. She turned the handled and walked into the room, knife in hand.
Their eyes locked as soon as they saw each other. They stood there staring at each other for a long time. At least a minute went by before Atella was the first to move. She still hand her hand on the doorknob, and took a moment to step further in the room and close the door. Loki still had not said a word and was just watching her. Atella tensed up, preparing for a surprise attack, but it never came. He didn't do anything, and she didn't feel him trying to get into her head either. He seemed relaxed, as though this were his house and his room.
Finally, just as she was about to speak, he beat her to it and said, "Who are you?"
"What? You haven't made Barton tell you about every single person inside of SHIELD?" Atella said hatefully. Fury had told her how Barton had been captured along with the scientist Eric Selvig, and that they had somehow been brainwashed into helping Loki. From what the agency could tell, they were both still alive.
Loki shook his head no slightly, his eyes remaining on her and said, "I thought he did, but you are different. How did you hide yourself from me?"
His expression was somewhere between curiosity and… fear perhaps? So he really had no idea about her. She took his momentary distraction to look around the room. It was completely empty save for a few pieces of plastic hanging up as well as several cans of paint. It was clearly being remodeled.
Atella smiled. "I have tricks of my own, but you don't need to know about any of that. If you try to leave this room, I will kill you."
Loki laughed softly. "Can you kill a god?"
"Can you?" Atella said instantly. She never thought of herself once in her life, but the less that he truly knew of her, the better at this point.
Loki looked taken aback for a second, but composed himself again. "You're just as human as the next pathetic inhabitant of this place. Don't try lying to me." He started walking towards her, slowly and lazily. "However, there is something about you that is so… powerful and courageous. I need someone like that on my side." He was standing right in front of her now, but she still didn't move.
She stared him right in the eye and said, "I will never be on your side."
He laughed that soft laugh again and said, "We will see about that."
He raised the cane in his hand and as he did it became the golden spear that Fury had warned her about. Instinct took over, and just before the tip touched her chest, she turned into her diamond form. A light click was heard as it came in contact with her chest, but nothing happened.
Loki did not look surprised in the least. If anything, he looked even more curious about her. "I knew there was something different about you."
"That's not all that's different."
And with that, Atella's mind took full control of Loki's. Smashing through what ever barriers stood in her way. He dropped his spear, grabbed his head, and dropped to his knees, but he didn't make a sound. His face was a mask of pain as he tried to push her out, but he was much weaker than she expected. She tightened her hold on his mind and made sure that it hurt him to where he wouldn't be able to move. The only sounds he made in response was a loud grunt, but was silent again.
The god's head was bowed, and he was on one knee in front of Atella, as though he was praying to her. His body started to tremble from the amount of pain Atella was forcing upon him, as well as the effort he was making to get her out.
Atella, on the other hand, stood straight with her knife raised in her hand just incase he was tricking her. There was no way that he was getting away from her tonight, especially since it had been this easy to capture him in the first place. Atella was so wrapped up in her own thoughts and concentration on keeping Loki contained that she nearly lost everything when she heard his voice in her head.
"What are you?" the god thought to her. Even his thoughts sounded pained.
"I'm just one of many pathetic humans," Atella thought back in a hollow tone. To make sure he wouldn't be saying anything else, she briefly tighten her hold on his mind, and he cried out for the first time in response, but was silent again after that.
He was still sitting up on one knee, which surprised Atella. Normal humans would probably be dead by now, but he wasn't even on the verge of passing out yet. Although, she couldn't expect anything less from a god.
Convinced that he wouldn't be able to move, let alone attack her, she walked around Loki and to the other side of the room, where a huge window took up an entire wall. This part of the house faced the backside of the building, and she could see a couple of security guards patrolling the area around the premises.
She glanced back to Loki just in time to see one trembling hand grasp the spear and aim it at her. From his kneeling position on the ground, he quickly fired a small blast at her that she just barely managed to avoid, but it seemed to dissipate in midair, leaving the window behind her intact. In the sudden chaos, her mind faltered and she felt herself being shoved completely out of his mind, which she could tell was a huge effort on his part.
She quickly changed into her diamond form and whipped around to find him on his feet again, but this time, a dangerous look in his eye and a smile on his face.
"That was very effective, Agent. I don't think that I have met someone that can completely incapacitate another solely with the mind. Now, if you could just stop all of that," he pointed to her knife in her hand with his spear," we can get this all over with."
Atella smirked at him. "Try touching me with that. I dare you."
"I really don't want to risk killing you."
Atella outright laughed. "You can't do shit to me while I'm like this," she said tapping her leg with the tip of her knife and getting a satisfying clink in response.
"We will see about that," he said quietly.
Suddenly, another bolt of energy was sent her way again, but this time, she didn't take her eye off of him as she dodged it. Before she stood back up, she took out two of her smaller knives from her legs and threw them at him. They were not throwing knives, but they would get the job done. They both did an unnatural curve and went around him, and imbedded themselves up to the hilt in the wall behind him. Just as she suspected, throwing them wouldn't work.
As she was trying to think of another plan of attack, he unexpectedly leaped from his place at the center of the room to where she was standing and landed in front of her. His hand found her throat and squeezed. At first she didn't feel anything at all. Atella started laughing darkly. Loki merely tightened his grip, but she still couldn't feel a thing.
"This can get very bad for you very quickly," he said. "You have no idea what I am capable of."
"You have no idea what I am capable of either."
"If you do not resume your human form, I will kill you," he said simply, as though explaining a math problem to her.
"Go for it."
His grip instantly doubled, and Atella was lifted off of her feet. Surprisingly, she began to feel pressure at her neck. She usually couldn't feel a single thing when in diamond form. Soon, she could feel her air being cut off, and she began to hear sounds as though glass was breaking.
"What do you say now, Agent? Can we stop this so that I can finish my job here?"
Atella did not know what to do. The moment she changed back into her human form, his grip would surely crush her spine. It was a good thing that surrendering was not an option.
The entire time his hand was around her neck, her hands were at her sides. She waited until she felt his grip tighten again, then she brought her hands up to his arm as though she was trying to pry him off. He smiled sadistically at her as she started flailing, but his happiness was short lived.
Right as her hand went down again, she flicked her wrist and her dagger slide down into her open palm. Before Loki had time to register any of this, she brought the dagger down hard on his arm.
He hissed in pain and dropped her, and she wasted no time in plunging two more daggers into his chest. He stood there for a split second in shock, then pulled them both out with a growl. Rounding on her with a crazed look in his eye, he punched her in the face before she had time to move.
The last thing she saw was the god of mischief raising his spear in his bloody hands, and bringing it down upon her head.
8-8-8-8
When Atella woke up, she was surrounded by doctors and fellow agents of SHIELD. She was back on the helicarrier. When she picked her head up to get a better look around, she saw Natasha push her way through the other people in the room to her side.
"Okay, she is awake, everyone get out," she yelled at the other agents in the room. She turned to the doctors and said, "You guys too. She's fine. Go." Then, she angrily turned to Atella. "You said that you wouldn't do anything rash," she said sternly, but at the same time looking relieved.
"What happened? Did Loki get away?" Atella asked groggily.
"No, we got him. Ironman showed up and it was all over from there," Natasha replied.
"How long have I been out?"
"Honestly… about five hours… is there anything that you haven't told us about yourself?"
Atella laid her head back down annoyed. SHIELD always had to know every little detail of her life. "Like what?"
"Like having accelerated healing maybe? You only had a gash on you when we found you, but there was so much blood that we knew something else had to have happened."
"Yeah, I stabbed Loki. A lot," Atella said dryly.
"We know. We asked him if he knew anything about your condition, and he thought you were dead. He actually seemed very surprised when we told him that you were still alive."
The last few seconds before Atella was knocked out started coming back to her. "Yeah… I was… he, Loki, hit me in the head with his spear thing. That's the last thing that I can remember.
"The doctors took some x-rays when we first got you back here. They showed some signs that your skull had been cracked. Actually, more than cracked, shattered. Atella, we think you were dead for a while. Were you all… shiny when it happened?"
Atella tried to remember, but everything was still a bit dark. "I think so. I remember thinking that the spear wouldn't hurt me, but I was clearly wrong."
Natasha nodded at her. "I think that is what saved your life. Nothing has ever been strong enough to hurt you while you were in your diamond skin. I guess that if something does manage to break through, you will heal right back up."
Atella tried sitting up, and found it quiet easy. Natasha didn't try to stop her either. "Well, that's comforting. I guess I really am invincible, huh?"
Natasha face grew hard and she said, "Don't try it again. Next time you might not be so lucky. The doctors think that you are okay to leave whenever you want. Report to Fury as soon as you do."
With those parting words, Natasha left Atella along with only her thoughts to keep her company.
8-8-8-8
Barton would have already got the material that he needed, and should be on his way back to Selvig by now. Loki had been captured, just as he had wanted to be, and everything went according to plan. Except for that one little hitch.
He learned that her name was Atella Vorst. So far, she was the only human on this planet that had genuinely managed to impress him. When he thought he had killed her, he had immediately regretted not just capturing her. It had all worked out though. She had managed to survive the blow, to his even greater surprise, and was now on this floating land in the sky with him.
He needed her to join him. He already had enough people to do his grunt work, but he needed someone to watch his back when he was otherwise occupied. She would be perfect. Invincible, able to read minds, and, it didn't hurt that she was a SHIELD agent. She would probably know even more of their dirty secret than Barton since she could pick what she wanted from anyone's mind.
Loki had never seen telepathy quiet like her's before. He tried mastering that sort of magic in the past, but he was never very good at it. It took too much concentration, and there were so many easier methods for achieving the same goals. He could never control people fully enough to do his bidding, which is why he had to use his spear. But this woman, this woman could do everything with minimal effort that was a challenge for him. She could have every power on this planet working for him if he wanted her to.
She was also a talented manipulator. When he saw her from his place on the balcony at the party, he had known that there was something odd about her. At times, she seemed a bit shaky and see through, much like when he made copied of himself to trick others. It wasn't until he had looked into her eyes that he had seen just how powerful she was.
The other thing was her skin. He had literally never seen anything quite like her diamond skin. It was so flawless and beautiful, and he had never thought that about any person before in his life. She was dangerous, and she knew it.
If any of these mortals were going to challenge him, it was going to be Atella Vorst.
8-8-8-8
Before you guys lose faith in the story, Loki and Atella don't actually start liking each other until the next chapter. They really hate each other right now, but, if anything, they do admire each other's skills.
I am glad that you guys are liking the story. I really didn't think anyone would, mostly because I didn't really have a plan for it. BUT, you guys can help me out with that by leaving a review and letting me know what you would like to see happen, or any constructive criticisms or suggestions you might have.